Learn to change the Alexa Wake Word to something else on your Amazon Echo to personalize your device experience.
Unlike Siri on HomePod, Amazon lets you change the Wake Word for your Echo speaker. While there’s nothing wrong with making a request by starting with “Alexa,” it sure would be inconvenient if someone in your house had the same name.
Even though those chances might be small, you may have noticed that if you use a word close to “Alexa” in conversation, it can wake your speaker. This has actually happened in my house.
If you want to change the Wake Word for your Amazon Echo speaker, you can and here’s how.
Of course, a change like this needs to happen with the Alexa app on your phone (unless you have a compatible Echo speaker that lets you access your settings directly on the device screen). With your phone connected to Wi-Fi, also make sure your speaker is powered on and connected to Wi-Fi. After that, follow these steps.
Change your Alexa Wake Word on Amazon Echo
1) Open the Alexa app on your iPhone and select your speaker from the Home or Devices section.
2) Tap the settings icon.
3) Scroll down to the General section and tap Wake Word.
4) Choose a new word from the list. Aside from Alexa, you can pick Echo, Computer, or Amazon.
5) After you pick a new word, you’ll see a brief pop-up message letting you know it may take a few minutes to make the change. Tap OK. You may also see your Amazon Echo speaker status light flash orange briefly.
And that’s it; your new Wake Word is set.
It would be great if there was a longer list of Wake Word choices. It seems like you would use the words Computer or Amazon more often when speaking around the house than you would with Alexa or Echo. And thus, waking your speaker by mistake. But just the fact that you can change it is a nice feature.
Additionally, I would love to set up a custom Wake Word for my Amazon speaker, but that’s also not possible.
Do you plan to change your Amazon Echo speaker Wake Word? If so, do you have a particular reason? Let us know!
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